4H meat birds

[Noraaaaa]

TYSM!

ofc!

 

[UluLaté]

HI! I'm a 4H kid in Ohio and I have a few questions about meat birds. I have silkies and wyandottes and do fancy birds, so I am very unknowing! Hope y'all can help!

I am thinking of getting them from Meyer Hatchery. This is where we get our non-show birds.

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/meat-birds


-should I do a broiler or a roaster?
-does it matter if they are boys or girls?
-how much do they sell for at auction?
-how much do I feed them?
-what are some designs for a moving coop (like a pic or article)?
-what do I feed them?
-do you bring them in pairs or trios?
-how many do you buy if you want two sets of them?
-do you wash them a lot because they are dirty?
-what is a good show-quality meat bird?
-how would I win the meat bird class?

My son used three Cornish cross broiler/roasters for a pen of three. He bought each chicken for sixty cents. We bought out all the chickens at the local feed store at once. The manager was sick of dealing with chickens. Right now you could buy each one for about $3 or so? My son sold his at auction for between $300-$500. We did not treat them differently from our other chickens. They were free fed chick starter/grower and then meat bird chicken feed, which has higher protein. We also give them table scraps. They free range during the day. If there were other kids at the county or state fair who followed the instructions and brought meat chickens, my son would not have won because he allowed his chickens to free range. We like to do that because we feel the birds are healthier, happier and have a better quality of life. Our theory is that would help the bird be healthier and therefore less susceptible to disease. It's just a theory. But if you are looking at weight gain and tenderness of meat at butchering, it is better to limit the birds exercise, because it causes the bird to burn energy that would otherwise go into making the bird gain more weight.

That's a decision you have to make as a producer. How do you want to go about raising your birds?

Other kids brought various BEAUTIFUL dual purpose chickens, including my other son.

Though the broiler/roasters were not even of butchering age, they won for meat chickens at our county and State Fair...against lovely large fully developed dual purpose birds because they were the only actual meat birds.

The purpose is to learn about meat birds and meat bird production.

When someone goes into the grocery store to buy chicken meat, do they care how beautiful the chicken was before it got butchered? No. They want the best quality and flavor for their money.

A meat bird producer is looking at the cost. How much does it cost for them to bring their product to market. That is to say how much feed does the bird eat, and over how many weeks or months? For meat production this is the key question. No other chicken can convert feed to meat like your broiler roaster and we Americans like white meat, which the Cornish crosses are good at developing.

I can't remember if my son washed his birds ..I think we were in a hurry and he just picked them up and put them in a kennel to get to the fair grounds on time. You can wash them and it's probably advisable, especially if the birds are confined because they get poopy. If you free range them on grass, and keep up their coop, the birds keep themselves pretty clean naturally.

The broilers aren't the prettiest birds, but they make good meat and quick. They are ready for harvest in 6-8 weeks.

We kept some on our farm over from last year, and they are as big as turkeys, now!

The meat is not as tender as if we had harvested when they were first ready obviously, but that can be mitigated by brining, freezing and the means of preparation.

My son's birds were under 7 weeks old at fair. That's one of the advantages of meat birds...rapid growth

My other son, whose birds were not even looked at by the judge, sold for more than the his older brothers pen of 3...Then again he was working the crowd...asking people to bid more so he wouldn't get less than his big brother...lol

Our objective was to learn a little, have some fun and maybe make some new friends. Winning, well that's just the cherry on top, an extra bonus.

Good luck to you!

 

[UluLaté]

My son used three Cornish cross broiler/roasters for a pen of three. He bought each chicken for sixty cents. We bought out all the chickens at the local feed store at once. The manager was sick of dealing with chickens. Right now you could buy each one for about $3 or so? My son sold his at auction for between $300-$500. We did not treat them differently from our other chickens. They were free fed chick starter/grower and then meat bird chicken feed, which has higher protein. We also give them table scraps. They free range during the day. If there were other kids at the county or state fair who followed the instructions and brought meat chickens, my son would not have won because he allowed his chickens to free range. We like to do that because we feel the birds are healthier, happier and have a better quality of life. Our theory is that would help the bird be healthier and therefore less susceptible to disease. It's just a theory. But if you are looking at weight gain and tenderness of meat at butchering, it is better to limit the birds exercise, because it causes the bird to burn energy that would otherwise go into making the bird gain more weight.

That's a decision you have to make as a producer. How do you want to go about raising your birds?

Other kids brought various BEAUTIFUL dual purpose chickens, including my other son.

Though the broiler/roasters were not even of butchering age, they won for meat chickens at our county and State Fair...against lovely large fully developed dual purpose birds because they were the only actual meat birds.

The purpose is to learn about meat birds and meat bird production.

When someone goes into the grocery store to buy chicken meat, do they care how beautiful the chicken was before it got butchered? No. They want the best quality and flavor for their money.

A meat bird producer is looking at the cost. How much does it cost for them to bring their product to market. That is to say how much feed does the bird eat, and over how many weeks or months? For meat production this is the key question. No other chicken can convert feed to meat like your broiler roaster and we Americans like white meat, which the Cornish crosses are good at developing.

I can't remember if my son washed his birds ..I think we were in a hurry and he just picked them up and put them in a kennel to get to the fair grounds on time. You can wash them and it's probably advisable, especially if the birds are confined because they get poopy. If you free range them on grass, and keep up their coop, the birds keep themselves pretty clean naturally.

The broilers aren't the prettiest birds, but they make good meat and quick. They are ready for harvest in 6-8 weeks.

We kept some on our farm over from last year, and they are as big as turkeys, now!

The meat is not as tender as if we had harvested when they were first ready obviously, but that can be mitigated by brining, freezing and the means of preparation.

My son's birds were under 7 weeks old at fair. That's one of the advantages of meat birds...rapid growth

My other son, whose birds were not even looked at by the judge, sold for more than the his older brothers pen of 3...Then again he was working the crowd...asking people to bid more so he wouldn't get less than his big brother...lol

Our objective was to learn a little, have some fun and maybe make some new friends. Winning, well that's just the cherry on top, an extra bonus.

Good luck to you!

I just wanted to add...our judges were not people within the 4H program. That was done to keep them objective, I think, because people can get really weird about fair. The woman who was in charge of the chicken area tried to get my son disqualified after he won. Her son had also completed for the pen of three meat chickens. The judges were unaffiliated and from another area. They apologized to the other kids for selecting my son's chickens and almost seemed reluctant to give him the ribbon because the other birds were so much prettier...but they were the only meat birds. My son felt awful and wanted to give the ribbon/prize back. But I encouraged him to hold fast. He had put in the time and followed the instructions. The other kids had an advisor who sold them their dual purpose chickens for like $150 and then walked them through the process. They were show quality...just not as good for meat production.

The judge seemed to look at the confirmation of the bird, how it stood and held it self and how much breast meat it had. That seemed important.

I think you also have to have the birds be fairly similar in size in each pen of 3?

It's been a few years, so I can't quite remember...but I seem to recall that being one of the things my son had to be careful of...not too much difference in size.